Waste of time
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card with a full sample answer, a Band 9 model of the two-minute long turn.
The cue card
Waste of time
You should say:
- what it is
- when you do it
- why you do it
- why you think it wastes your time
Sample answer
The activity I'd like to describe, which I'll freely admit eats into a considerable chunk of my time, is scrolling through short videos on my phone, particularly late in the evening.
It usually creeps up on me right before bed - I tell myself I'll just check my phone for five minutes, and then somehow forty-five minutes or even an hour vanishes without my noticing. It can also sneak in during random pockets of downtime throughout the day, like while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil or sitting on public transport.
I do it largely out of sheer habit, if I'm honest, rather than any genuine need. The app is engineered to be addictive, feeding you an endless stream of short, entertaining clips the moment you finish the last one, so there's never a natural stopping point, which makes it dangerously easy to keep scrolling almost on autopilot.
I consider it a genuine drain on my time because, unlike reading or watching a proper film, I rarely retain anything meaningful from it afterwards; most of the content is forgotten within minutes. It also eats into time I could otherwise devote to something more productive or restorative, like reading a book, exercising, or simply turning in at a reasonable hour, and on nights when I've overindulged in scrolling, I definitely notice I'm more sluggish the next day. I've tried imposing screen-time limits on my phone to rein in the habit, with mixed success, but I'm well aware it's something I need to be far more disciplined about, since, deep down, I know I'd feel a good deal better spending that time doing almost anything else.
Reading a model answer is not the same as saying one. The sample above shows what a strong Part 2 answer sounds like. What it cannot tell you is how yours sounds — whether you hesitate, repeat the question back, or run out of things to say at forty seconds.
You can record an answer to this exact question and get it marked on fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and pronunciation — the same four criteria the examiner uses.
Common questions
How long should I speak for in Part 2?
Between one and two minutes. The examiner stops you at two, so aim to still be talking at the ninety-second mark rather than finishing early — running out at forty seconds is the most common problem in this part.
What do I do with the one minute of preparation time?
You get one minute and a pencil and paper. Most candidates waste it writing full sentences they then read aloud, which sounds flat. Note a few keywords against each bullet instead, so you have four things to talk about rather than a script.
Do I have to cover all four bullet points?
They are prompts, not a checklist, and you are not penalised for skipping one. In practice they are the easiest way to fill two minutes, so covering them is usually the simplest way to keep going.
Does it matter if the story is not true?
No. You are assessed on your English, not on whether the events happened. Inventing detail is fine and often easier than recalling a real memory under pressure.
Model answers written and reviewed by The English All-in-One IELTS team. They are teaching models showing what each band looks like, not real candidate scripts.